Dream canoe dream rigging

[Waterdog]

Love my SRT! Love that CCS spray skirt!

barry

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Great solo canoe for wilderness tripping with a lot of gear on both rivers and lakes. Nicely outfitted, tomo! If you can sit or kneel, you've got a good seat height and confident balance.

 

[Idiot Savant]

Well, I figure with winter raging it's time to close the loop and report back. Got the dream SRT a few weeks before my planned trip departure in July. Dave Curtis did the canoe outfitting. He installed foot pegs, neoprene pads, Northwater d-rings, and padding onto Harold Deal's (RIP) signature seat. He didn't have any regular deck plates on hand, so he used spalted Walnut instead.


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Ironically enough, the canoe arrived (via KAS transport) while I was in the BWCA with my 17 year old son (we spent a week paddling from the Ely side to the Gunflint). I was happy to see it at last. Note hole for grab loop and hole for lining rope.



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I'm lucky to live a few hours from Dan Cooke's global headquarters in Lino Lakes , so the canoe and I made the trip to Dan's shop for a lovely day of spray deck measuring, sewing and install. Dan went on a few epic adventures in Alaska this summer, so I was happy our schedules lined up, and happy to leave the work up to the expert!

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It's a two-part spray deck. Per earlier thread discussion, my plan was to have lining ropes/painter lines on the bow and stern, and to affix a throw rope to the stern deck. In the event of a river capsize, I would get to the stern, grab the rope, swim to shore, and haul in the canoe. That's the working theory, anyway. After noodling with Dan, this is what came about.

Below is the canoe more or less outfitted for travel. Yellow section highlights where to swim in the event of capside, Dan sewed pockets for the lining ropes in the bow and stern areas with a velcro flap closure and created a space for the throw rope to reside. The rope is clipped onto the deck, secured with a velcro strap and the buckle, and tied in via the grab handle (see carabiner and rope).


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My plan was to canoe the Albany river to James Bay, but I got all the way up there and just wasn't comfortable doing it solo given the high water--locals said conditions were what spring flood usually looks like--and it was July 20. I kept picturing those landings at the brinks of rapids and falls (I paddled the Albany in my teens, and the upper Albany in my twenties)...Anyway, I still ruminate about the decision, as I know these rivers do get paddled come heck or high water, but in the end it didn't seem like the summer for me.

So, I hatched a plan B in Wabakimi and had a physically challenging but great trip. The canoe was a champ! It swallowed up 24 days of food without difficulty. The depth allowed me to feel comfortable kneeling without feeling as though my feet would get stuck if I dumped. The foot pegs made me feel locked into the canoe when sitting, which I did suprisingly often (the SRT is often described as twitchy, so I didn't figure on sitting much).

I used the spraydeck when paddling bigger lakes (Smoothrock, Brennan), but didn't use it much on moving water (I crossed the Allanwater, went up the Flindt a bit, up the Brightsand and down the Kopka).


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It was a comfortable place to spend my days. Note York Box (better fit for the Albany than Wabakimi), and Bourquin Yoke Pads (I had to get these as she first started making them at Camp Widjiwagan out of retired lifejacket flotation and I spent five summers as the program director at Widji--surrounded by all those wood Seligas).

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Because it was a new canoe and I wanted to baby it some, I attached a pool noodle to the front thwart. In addition to providing perhaps a bit of flotation in event of a capsize, it worked well to shield the canoe from rocks and such at landings or pulling it onto shore--though of course it still took a beating.


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I did crack the gel coat in one spot when I got swung sideways paddling up a stretch of fast water on the Brightsand river. I blasted a rock pretty good, but all was more or less okay. In the spring, I'll post a picture of the damage.

A few more pics for your enjoyment. Thanks all for joining along and contributing to the outfitting journey, which I'm sure will be ongoing. I'm happy to have this canoe to get to wild and beautiful places. The SRT and I had a great break-in trip! And the Albany and Attawapiskat still beckon on the horizon, dreams for other summers.


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Pretty snazzy.
Interesting paddle. Who made it?

 

[jdeerfoot]

Very nice boat and trip report.

In August 2009 our group started on Osnaburgh Lk heading east on the Albany planning to go as far east as we could get. This turned out to be only to Achapi Lk. 2009 was an extremely rainy year with all the dams to west opened up putting the Albany in flood. With the river in flood we skipped some portages by hand-pulling the boats through the woods while sitting in them. We had to end the trip on Achapi Lk since our pilot told us we would not be able to get through a kilometers long section of the river just beyond Achapi due to high waves and no portages. Fortunately for us he was using his turbo Otter to deliver building materials to a mining claim in the area and was dead heading back to Armstrong so his plane could accommodate our 2 canoes/gear and the 4 of us.

On a 2018 trip from Allanwater Bridge on the Allanwater Rv to the Kopka Rv to Lake Nipigon we had the opposite issue - little to no rain with water levels dropping daily. Fortunately we had a royalex boat which still took a beating.

 

[tomo]

Pretty snazzy.
Interesting paddle. Who made it?

I think it's a Grey Owl Hammerhead.

 

[tomo]

Very nice boat and trip report.

In August 2009 our group started on Osnaburgh Lk heading east on the Albany planning to go as far east as we could get. This turned out to be only to Achapi Lk. 2009 was an extremely rainy year with all the dams to west opened up putting the Albany in flood. With the river in flood we skipped some portages by hand-pulling the boats through the woods while sitting in them. We had to end the trip on Achapi Lk since our pilot told us we would not be able to get through a kilometers long section of the river just beyond Achapi due to high waves and no portages. Fortunately for us he was using his turbo Otter to deliver building materials to a mining claim in the area and was dead heading back to Armstrong so his plane could accommodate our 2 canoes/gear and the 4 of us.

On a 2018 trip from Allanwater Bridge on the Allanwater Rv to the Kopka Rv to Lake Nipigon we had the opposite issue - little to no rain with water levels dropping daily. Fortunately we had a royalex boat which still took a beating.

Stories like this make me feel better about my decision. Thanks for sharing!